My Brain On HeroQuest (complex topic)

[Azure]

Hello folks. For the past 15 years I have been obsessed (on & off) with TTRPGs and boardgames, mostly anything that pertains to *Medieval Fantasy*. Since 2017 I have been involved with Dungeons and Dragons (dipping back into it and also discovering the Diablo2-DND-Special Edition>>>>> and also doing a few modern campaigns with 5th Edition)

The DnD Diablo2 edition brought me into an unfathomable frenzied need for tactical combat and medieval boardgames and led me to HeroQuest, a wonderful thing we all know.

In my various hobbies, I also play ActionRPGs (Diablo2/Diablo4/LastEpoch/TitanQuest/Other ARPGs). This is where my brain gets unsatisfied on various elements of the hobby. I am asking about your opinion on this matter.

HEROQUEST ;
- Tired of moving around in the exact same dungeon with the predictable rooms.
- Can't seem to find serious, regular people to play with in 2026.
- After 50 quests you realize the game has huge potential and is not optimized, even with so many expansions.

Dungeons And Dragons//ShadowDark//Other TTRPGs
(I am usually the DM at 95% of the time)
- I am sick and tired of having to manage various Egos, so many classes and races/ancestries
- Sick and tired of trying to find compatible players on Discord/any online platform
- Sick and tired of conflicting schedules, and people who think 5e is all there is.
- Sick and tired of people who ditch the campaign after 2-3 sessions.

ActionRPGs in general
- I am tolerating when powerful heroes are steamrolling the dungeons and less advanced characters are following behind.
- ActionRPGs cut to the chase and make things happen, but the gameplay is not strategic and doesn't involve your brain that much, other than combining good gear, good runes, good combos of powers.
- It's a good way to be with friends online but doesn't fulfill my need truly.

It appears to me that it is very difficult to find a sweet spot between HeroQuest/A-RPG/TTRPG.
As years go by, the number of people who contact our Discord channel to play HeroQuest is less and less.
I have become disinterested with D&D//ShadowDark and other similar systems.
ActionRPGs have become a game where you run in a corridor and enemies splatter everywhere.
Most new Kickstarter campaigns for new impressive boardgames fall apart and are quite scammy-looking.
Games like HellGuard ; Curse of Caina and DownToHell never came out.
Other interesting boardgames are monstrosities that cost 300$ that nobody wants to play.

What is your take on this ?

[crystlshake]

I think in general you are aiming for a sweet spot on a scale of complexity and depth with enough players and or low enough entry complexity to be reliable for the table.

I personally love the depth and openness for outside the box problem solving and dynamic story telling that a more complex system such as a full TTRPG can support, despite having only played or run a few. However for my current friend/playgroup that added complexity becomes a bit more of an albotross in practice. For one, introducing new players (expecially a group all at once with no experience is daunting on my end and intimidating on theirs as there is a lot of decision making they are not used to coming from a more traditional boardgame background, combined with a fear of missing out or decision paralysis by not knowing enough before experiencing a single game. In addition schedules and circumstance make setting a regular gaming time possible and doable, but dedication without interuption is just not possible. For us, that has shelved many games that we in theory wanted to play but is just not possible. A request for me to learn a whole new system I have no familarity with nor the source material to try and run and presumably teach (Cosmere) is just way more than I can or am willing to invest either which is a whole other side of that mess.

The other part of that equation, the more complex a game becomes, usually equates to greater time investment in decision making or play procedure. Playing my first wargame really hammered that point home, and two of our regulars are more the type to want to stick to simple card games or family classics that don't require much investment or focus so that is a factor as well for my case.

So I would say at the higher end you have these open ended high investment games (in time and energy at least) that can have higher and more varied play experiences. I would place the common card games at the other end as they tend to the less complex at least once you understand how they work as the overall play state is more stable and predictable.

In the middle of the scale that we are looking at I would put the action rpgs. I havent played too many boardgame ones at least- and myself would probably slot Heroquest at the lower end of complexity in this category. For these you are generally trading freedom from the TTRPG for a more structured and focused game experience. It could be more scripted scenarios or have some randomness but the key thing, is that they usually have some freedom and choices for tailoring your play experience. For example, instead of creating a character you are choosing a preset (or pregenerated) one and able to tweak them a bit thru items or gear. The more focused structure supports a grid or movement/action mechanic that keeps play moving at a more steady pace by restricting your overall choices and decisions. Thus you will be more likely to have a 'complete' play experience or a segment of one in a given session in a more predicatable segment of time as players become more familar with the play procedures. On the higher end of this you may still be using different types of dice or cards and reference tables or numerous stats to determine how the game events resolve. I havent played them, but I imagine the D&D boardgames fall into this category, as a kind of bridge between the traditional board game and the more complex D&D with a design intended to introduce simplified versions of many key elements.

Like I said, I would place Heroquest at the lower threshold of that category as a kind of transition between those more mechanically complex games (and the numerous wargames from the 80s and such that inspired some of them) and the simpler structure of the family boardgame. As before you are giving up freedom and complexity for a less complex experience that is easier and less intimidating to learn. With the base game for example as a hero player you have a choice between 4 heroes, and then a choice between 4 spell groups depending on your first choice. You only have a few simple stat numbers to pay attention to that dont tend to change much or quickly bar BP. Quests are sequenced in a way that trickles the game play aspects in so it doesnt hit a new player all at once giving them a chance to learn the base operations of movement and combat (the core ones) before throwing in traps and secrets or the more complex magic.

For my group, that easy pickup and play and less intimidating startup was key to get them to try it (having blatently said they were intimidated beforehand) due to their inexperience with anything in the 'roleplaying' type of game and whatever expectations they had to start with. While 2 of the starting group don't really get into it either from the theme or just wanting to play simple games they know well and can turn their brain off for and have thus fallen out of playing with us, we have sucessfully fielded others interested in playing and are nearing the end of the Game System first 14 quests (yay). Having a pregenerated role I have found leaves players more open to playing the role as the emotional attachment is different as well.

Having reached this point, the core group have brushed up against some of the limitations on the as written game play. But they are also more confident to handle greater challenges beyond the base system now. One of them played their first D&D game for example. So I will be sticking mostly to the as written expansions but making tweaks and introducing more homebrew type stuff once they graduate off of the starting structure. The best thing about Heroquest is what you can do with Heroquest. Being simple, means it is pretty easy to modify and add stuff to for getting the experience you want.

If you want to build of HQ, my suggestions would be looking into homebrew content (plenty of quality stuff on this board). I haven't actually used or aquired all of the stuff I would like for it, but others have run into the same game limitations and come up with different approaches to tackling the challenge.

A few examples you may want to look into, The Evil Wizard Deck and similar mechanisms that put a time clock of sorts on the heroes and gives the EW player more to do on off turns. This can keep the game moving if it is stalling - and the concept can be broken out at will in relation to player action too if you are willing. I had an instance of players huddling at a doorway trying to get me to funnel the room of monsters into them, making a pretty poor introduction as we had a new player that wasn't given a chance to fight as they had less powerful gear and may have been hit. So I adjusted and had a few orcs move strangely which caught their attention, when asked what they were doing I replied with you dont know but certainly nothing good. When they didnt make a push ( I didnt want to conga line 5 consecutive weak monsters into the meat grinder door), I had those monsters raise an alarm. I then said they heard a sudden clamor pickup from the next room. That was finally enough to get them moving but I made a point about the monsters being more aware, and subbed a few around to reflect that. I didnt want the first interaction the player had to be sidelined to 15 minutes of slow killing single monsters. It was definitely the right choice as its probably the best session we had so far by all players telling as we had some pretty nice intense moments. We are playing at hero difficulty so there is little chance of full death per their request at this time, but it gave them the feel for being more daring. The barbarian boasted something about being able to take out a room himself later on I think in the next quest which became its own little story highlight.

I get how you feel on the gameboard map. Its great being able to setup and be ready to play more quickly (as well as having the well defined play area) but it does get a bit predictable and doesnt feel as much like exploring new places. A project I am working on for myself is to make a tile set that is a copy of the game board but play it onto a more blank grid to allow more of the exploration feel of rooms coming into view that Advanced Heroquest does. In tandem by working with movable rooms and halls, you can keep the same general layout structure of flow but make some minor adjustments on the fly to break up the sameness or break free of it completly if you want on a whim.

For tactical stuff (the game could certainly benefit from a touch more at least- though the small rooms dampens it a bit and is probably part of why it isnt more robust aside from complexity) I think The Old World Armory or a similar equipment card set has their weapons using a tactical grid for where they can reach. A lot are what you would expect, but some get more like a tactical RPG such as Disgaea where it hits 2 spaces away or differently on diagonals or a group of squares and such. I could swear there is a more overall tactical retake on the rule book but I can't remember the details right now.

I've been in the more homebrew supplement mindset myself, as I can more easily build off of HQ for my players than learning and or teaching another system now that they have some investment. I have also been doing additional related side projects to enhance engagement. For example, while I like the game cards, early on my players were getting frustrated not being able to easily find the gameplay info quickly which was causeing issues for them. As a result I made my own version of equipment cards, so each item they have on their character is now a card vs written in ( usually written in or via a proxy stand in until I can get a proper one done by next game) I also codified how equipment stats were applied and made reminder cards for that and a few other things. Stuff follows a somewhat regular format of where to check for info. One side has a picture, name simple ideogram of what it does (ex +2 Def) while the full details are broken down on the back along with the price (since we started play with the MB version that had the Armory board for the shop) so they can easily find the info they need on their own. While my art is simple, I try to vary up the style and even dabbled with some colored pencils at one point on the off chance they get attached to a certain item for its look, like comparing two longswords or something. If I have room or inclination I may add meaningless emelishments for style for the same reason like an embossing in leather that one of the FH items did I think?

I also started keeping notes of gameplay highlights and doing a recap type thing after each quest with the intention that after they complete the game system I will make copies and each player will have their own little keepsake of their adventure. Plus it allows more of the world building I or the original quest designers do not to be lost to memory.